The evil King Kans slaughters his sister’s sons when it is foretold that one of them will grow up to destroy him. But he finds that destiny is a hard thing to escape. Watch The Birth of Krishna!
Here we look at Religion and Culture, Founders and Holy Books.
Hinduism does not have any one person we can point to and say, “This is the one who started it all!“, for Hinduism is sruti, meaning “that which is heard and known”. Hinduism has a tradition of God coming many times to destroy evil, and restore righteousness. Here, we learn the story of one such descent of God, Krishna. (Krishna means ‘the dark one’, or, ‘the blue skinned one’)
Discussion Questions:
- Do you believe in “Fate”? Do our lives follow a plan, or lead to a destiny that we cannot escape?
- Krishna is an avatar of the God Vishnu, and Hindus believe that Vishnu will return to defeat a great evil in the future. If Vishnu returned today, what “evil” or “evils” do you think he should deal with?
- Most religions have a role model like Krishna for people to look up to and provide an example to follow. Who are today’s role models? What do they tell us about our society’s beliefs and values?
- How are Hindu beliefs about God different and yet similar to the beliefs of the other major religions?
- What are the similarities in this story to the accounts of Jesus’ birth in Christianity? Can you see any similarities to other Biblical stories?
Activities:
- Investigate what happened to Krishna when he grew up, and how he finally defeated King Kans.
- Turn this story, or another story about Krishna into a comic book. Give yourself just ten frames to illustrate the key moments.
- Find out about all ten of Vishnu’s avatars: their names, what they look like and their stories.
- Write a story in which one of Vishnu’s avatars returns to Earth to deal with one of the “evils” we are facing in today’s world.
- Find an example of the Dashavatar dance online. This is a classical dance which celebrates the ten avatars of Vishnu, each with a special dance move.
Keywords for this topic:
Hindu, Hinduism, Krishna, King Kans, Devaki, Vasudev, destiny, Maya Maya, Vishnu, faith, story
Download The Birth of Krishna
Krishna v. Kans, (King Kamsa)